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Emergency department or urgent care? How to decide

Illness and injury often happen when it’s least convenient and your regular doctor isn’t available to provide immediate care. Now you face an important decision: should you go to an urgent care facility or an emergency department?

It’s not always an easy answer, especially when more health insurance plans are refusing to pay for some non-emergent visits to an emergency department. As a physician who has spent decades treating patients in both emergency and urgent care settings, I can offer some tips to help you make an informed decision.

First and most importantly, if you believe you’re experiencing an emergency, call 911. Paramedics can take you to the emergency department more quickly and safely than driving yourself or having a friend or family member do it.

Emergency Department Care

Overall, emergency department care is 24/7 and is best for trauma and life-threatening injuries, illnesses or symptoms. This includes:

Trouble breathing or shortness of breath

Chest or upper abdominal pain or pressure

Fainting, sudden dizziness, weakness

Sudden change in ability to move or talk

Sudden change or loss of vision

Confusion or change in mental status

Any sudden or severe pain

Uncontrolled bleeding

Severe or persistent vomiting or diarrhea

Vomiting blood or passing blood in urine or stool

Head injury resulting in loss of consciousness, vomiting, confusion; or head injury in older patients or those on blood thinners in which brain bleeding is more common

Burns to a large area, hands or feet that go deep into the skin with loss of sensation

Pregnancy concerns such as vaginal bleeding or abdominal pain

Patients who are immunosuppressed (cancer, transplant, auto-immune disorders, etc.) have complicating circumstances that most urgent cares are not equipped to handle

Most psychiatric issues

Many of these concerns can be symptoms of time-sensitive ailments such as a heart attack, stroke or blood clot. An urgent care facility won’t have the proper medical supplies, tests and equipment to handle life-threatening problems, and valuable time would be wasted getting to the right place.

If you think you have a real emergency, don’t go to an urgent care hoping they’ll tell you it isn’t an emergency. Get treated as soon as possible in the appropriate setting.

AfterHours or Urgent Care

This type of care is best for non-life threatening injuries, illnesses or symptoms, and other health care needs when a patient’s regular physician isn’t available, such as evenings and weekends. We have two such facilities -- AfterHours Care Gahanna and AfterHours Care Martha Morehouse Medical Plaza – where we treat a wide range of health concerns that don’t require hospitalization or extensive testing. AfterHours Care centers are primarily staffed by Emergency Room physicians, while many Urgent Care facilities are not. Both AfterHours Care and Urgent care centers can treat the following areas:

Flares of a chronic condition: you’re familiar with what is going on, you just need a doctor to examine you and prescribe medication

Sexually-transmitted diseases

Minor nosebleed not on blood thinners

Many, but not all, urgent care facilities can do x-rays and some blood and urine testing. Most can’t perform CAT scans, MRI or provide intravenous medication. In short, if it’s fairly straight forward and could be done at your primary care doctor’s office if they were able to see you, then urgent care is best.

If the symptoms are alarming or affect breathing, thinking or the chest, go to the emergency department. Using the appropriate health care facility for your symptoms can save your life.

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